Michigan-based melodic death metal band THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER has tapped former ARSIS guitarist Ryan Knight to replace John Kempainen, who "abruptly" left the fold last month. The news was revealed by vocalist Trevor Strnad in an interview with HardTimes.ca on December 17, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. During the 10-minute chat, which can be viewed below, Strnad also revealed that the band "almost died" after flipping its trailer twice earlier that day (December 17) and the group's van ended up in a ditch.

Regarding the band's latest addition, Strnad said, "He shreds, man. We've been sending him new songs from the [upcoming] album — we've got four songs so far — and he sent them back and just shredded them into pieces. So I have a boner right now. [Laughs] I'm so excited to fucking play with this kid. We've toured with them before, we've toured with ARSIS, and we know he's cool. It's hard, because we love ARSIS, but he was already leaving them. He was actually… Some people were gonna hook him up with DEICIDE, but we swept him just in time."

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER's tour with MISERY INDEX and SOILENT GREEN kicked off on December 1 in Iowa City, Iowa.

The band's new album, "Nocturnal", was released on September 18, 2007 via Metal Blade Records. The follow-up to 2005's "Miasma" was recorded with Eric Rachel (who mixed "Miasma") and was mixed by Jason Suecof.